By TAO
I’m impressed. Go read it now by Adam Pertman of the Adoption Institute and Bruce Boyer is Director of the Civitas ChildLaw Clinic at Loyola University in Chicago.
The Baby Veronica Saga: Denial of a Father’s Rights and Now a $1 Million Lesson
Too bad other groups in adoption don’t seem to stand up on the side of ethics…
The adopted ones blog 
lynnemiller
November 27, 2013 at 11:14 pm
Thanks for posting the article, TAO. It’s good to see Adam Pertman taking a strong position in this complicated case.
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Valentine Logar
November 28, 2013 at 11:21 am
This simply makes me want to hurt people. Thank you for posting.
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cb
November 28, 2013 at 12:25 pm
Good article.
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Don't We Look Alike?
November 28, 2013 at 2:42 pm
Oh yeah, that’s a great article for a variety of points! I wonder if that is typical that the APs pay for the birth mother’s attorney in adoptions. It makes sense that a lot of times the BM can’t afford an attorney, but wow that is problematic.
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TAO
November 28, 2013 at 2:50 pm
Luanne, it is routine and something I struggle with too. You could require the agency to pay out of operating funds but that is a conflict as well. Ideally, an adoption agency would pay a set amount per adoption – to a cross states fund set up to disperse funds to lawyers representing mothers in adoption at any agency anywhere in the states, and the agencies would have no say which lawyers were hired by the mothers provided they had the adoption law expertise. I’m sure that could still be manipulated but it puts in a random element to the mix…
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Don't We Look Alike?
November 28, 2013 at 2:58 pm
In general, I get irritated at having the government involve itself too much in our lives, but this might be a case where society ought to be covering the costs. What if all adoption costs were covered by the government? That’s the first time I’ve ever had that heretical thought haha. But wouldn’t that take money out as a motivator for anybody? Or would it turn out to look like the birth mothers in the book The Giver? Help me out here . . . .
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TAO
November 28, 2013 at 3:09 pm
Haven’t read The Giver…
My adoption was done through the state and some if not most states still do them. Short version. My mother moved to a relatives home out of her own city, went to that relatives doctor, delivered me. At some point either she or the doctor initiated the contact with the county SW (called Chief Juvenile Probation Officer back then which makes me giggle). The SW then would have scheduled the court date with the judge to take her surrender X number of days after birth, and, also did those SW things to make sure it was voluntary and any wishes for the home the child (me) to be placed in. The SW then looked at her pool of waiting families and in my case none matched the requests made by my mother so she went outside the pool to mom and dad who were done adopting. The cost to my mother was zero. The cost to mom and dad was the amount for “my” care in hospital and the fee for their lawyer to type up and file the petition to adopt. Total cost – under $200.
Mothers and their families paid the maternity home costs – not the adopting parents although I am sure in agency adoptions they would have given the non-profit maternity home a hefty donation after the fact. Paying mothers expenses was prohibited because it equaled buying a baby…once the shame factor was gone there was no reason to send the mother away and the trip down the slippery slope began…
The money in adoption is the root of the problem…
Happy Thanksgiving!
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heatherrainbow
November 30, 2013 at 5:08 am
Yes. Typical. The alternative is that the mothers don’t have any legal counsel, which is also typical.
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Don't We Look Alike?
December 1, 2013 at 9:42 pm
Ugh.
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